Starting Over
by darth louis
Summary: Post 'Chosen'. What the gang do afterwards. Please Review!
1. Closed for Business

A/N- I own all the Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters... in my dreams, right, so it starts right after 'Chosen', and after that who knows how long I'll drag it out, I pretty much don't have a plan...but that's never stopped me before. Warning, some characters will be completely forgotten about, some because I choose to forget about them, some simple because I don't like them...

First a quick reminder of the very last lines from 'Chosen'

"Looks like the hell mouths officially closed for business." Faith

"There is another one in Cleveland...not to spoil the moment." Giles

"We saved the world." Xander

"We changed the world, I can feel them Buffy, all over, Slayer's are awakening everywhere." Willow

"We'll have to find them." Dawn

"We will." Willow

"Yes, because the Mall was actually in Sunnydale so there's no hope of going there tomorrow." Giles

"We destroyed the Mall? I fought on the wrong side." Dawn

"All those stores gone? The Gap, Starbucks, Toys R Us, who will remember all those landmarks unless we tell the world about them?" Xander

"We have a lot of work ahead of us." Giles

"Can I push him in?" Faith

"You've got my vote." Willow

"I just wanna sleep, for like a week." Faith

"I guess we all could, if we wanted to." Dawn

"Yeah, the first is scrunched so what do you think we should do Buffy?" Willow

"Yeah, you're not the one and only chosen anymore, you just gotta live like a person, hows that feel?" Faith

"Yeah Buffy. What are we gonna do now?" Dawn

(Let the Fic begin)

* * *

"I honestly don't know." Buffy said, turning around to the group, still smiling. More and more new Slayers were gathering around them now. "And I'm not going to be the one to tell you." She looked specifically at the Slayers. "The First is gone, it's not after you anymore, but you just popped up on Evil's radar, you are all Slayers, and that means your not ever going to have a 'normal' life, but at least you're not alone anymore. You have the power. It's your choice what you do with it." As soon as she stopped they began whispering amongst themselves, telling each other what they were going to go, it was incredible to think about it, Slayers all over the world were discovering what they were, thousands, maybe millions of girls discovering that they too weren't normal. The again, what was normal? Before it had been someone without super strength, but now, now it would be the latest fashion accessory.

"What about the rest of us. Where are we going to go?" Dawn asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Well, I hate to say this, but Giles is right, we do have a lot of work ahead of us."

"What about her?" Faith asked, turning to Willow. "Can I push her in too?" Buffy raised her eyebrows.

"Guys, it's over, we've kicked the big bad back to where it came from, but that doesn't mean there isn't another one right around the corner, in Cleveland apparently."

"So it's off to Cleveland?" Asked Xander.

"That's entirely up to you, it's where I'm going, but we need to find the new Slayers as well, they won't understand their gift, we need to explain it to them."

"I'll go to England, tell the Council what's happened." Giles told them, he stopped for a minute and smiled to himself. "They're going to bloody love you for this." He said to Buffy.

"Good, you can take Andrew with you."

"Oh bloo...I mean, ok." He replied, trying to hide his dislike for the idea.

"What about the rest of you, Faith? Will?"

"I'll go find them, I want to explain to them, and I can somehow sense them, which, more or less gives me an advantage." Explained Willow.

"I'll take brat duty too, gotta have someone there who knows what they're going through." Faith told them with no sensitivity for the new Slayers around her.

"Ok then."

The next chapter will be a lot better I promise, that was really just to start things off.


	2. Aftermath

A/N- Alas, I still don't own the characters of Buffy & co. they are the property of one Joss Whedon. However, in this chapter, I introduce a couple of new and evil characters, and as RavenclawPride will no doubt notice these are characters that I created and that I am using for a book I'm writing, I just thought they would fit in here rather well.

* * *

Finally the first signs of civilisation could be seen on the horizon, Buffy resisted the urge to give a cheer, at last she'd be able to get the people who needed it to a Hospital. It had been almost 2 hours since they'd destroyed the Hell Mouth and Sunnydale with it. It was strange, she was starting all over again with no home, and very little money, but oddly she wasn't worried, she had her friends with her and she was alive, and that defiantly counted for something. She felt a twinge of guilt; as Spike suddenly popped into her head, she hadn't really thought about him much, she'd been trying to avoid it for fear that thinking about him would make it real, but she really couldn't be sad, she knew Spike, and she knew that he died the way he would have wanted it, in a blaze of glory.

"Hey." Said Dawn, bringing Buffy back to reality. "Oh, that looks pretty nasty. Are you sure you're ok?" She asked, looking at her Sister's wound.

"Yeah, I'm fine, what's one shiny new stab wound when I've already died twice?" She asked, making Dawn laugh, in truth it did hurt, but she knew she'd be ok, accelerated healing powers and all that jazz. "I'll be fine once I can get a change of cloth..." She said, stopping herself as she realised. "Oh yeah, I have no other clothes."

"I defiantly fought on the wrong side, next time you guys are all like 'Hey lets go destroy evil' I'm staying out of it." Buffy rolled her eyes and laughed.

"We're entering the city." Shouted Giles from the driver's seat, which grabbed everyone's attention. Buffy struggled to her feet; her stab wound was still stinging. The bus came to a gentle stop.

* * *

A roaring fire, golden trinkets scattered around the room, lavish and expensive fabrics hanging from the walls, and a liquor cabinet full of her favourite drinks. This was the very least she had come to expect from a dwelling in her long time wandering the earth. Morsirius simply couldn't live unless she was living in style; it was the least she deserved. She sat on her four poster bed, its golden pillars glistening slightly, her book in one hand, a Vodka and Coke in the other and the most expensive cigarettes she could find smouldering away in the ashtray. She closed the book hard; it was boring her so she threw it to the side and drained what was left of her drink. She suddenly looked around, very alert. The glass at her window shattered as someone threw them self through it. The person stood up, it was a young woman, fairly skinny, with brown hair. She drew out a wooden stake.

"Vampire!" She shouted, making her way forward. The red head stood up, and met the Slayer's first strike by catching her arm.

"Excuse me?" She asked, disgusted. "I'm not just any Vampire." She told the struggling woman as she punched the side of the face sending her flying across the room and into the wall. "I'm Morsirius." The Slayer picked herself up; bleeding from a few cuts she'd got from crashing into a mirror. She made another feeble attempt to attack Morsirius but she was too quick, dodging the punch, grabbing her arm, and bending it behind her back, then she grabbed her neck and twisted until a sickening snap was heard. Morsirius dropped the woman's limp body to the floor. "Mauvais! Get your ass in here!"

* * *

There was a click as someone answered the phone.

"Wolfram and Hart, how can I help?" Asked the woman

"Can I sp...wait...Harmony?" Buffy asked, puzzled by the presence of the blonde Vampire at the other end of the phone.

"Yes, who am I speaking to."

"Buffy."

"Oh, god, erm...I can explain the whole trying to kill you thing, I swear."

"Uh huh, well as lovely as it is to speak to you again..." Buffy retorted sarcastically.

"Oh right, you wanna speak to the boss..."

"Is that Buffy?" Buffy heard a voice ask in the distance. "Give me the damn phone Harmony." She heard the phone being snatched away. "Buffy?" Angel asked desperately

"Why have you got Harmony answering the phones? You know she's evil right?"

"I heard that!" An annoying voice cried in the background

"Harmony shut up." Angel told her "Go do some work, it's what I pay you for. It's so good to hear from you, does this mean you don't need that second front?"

"Yup." She told him happily

"And what about the...?

"The amulet worked fine, a little too well actually, but I'm not complaining."

"Are you calling from home?" Buffy's good mood faded a little, she kept being hit with little things that hadn't occurred to her, and it hadn't really sunk in yet that her house was destroyed, the house she'd lived in for all those years, the house her mother had loved so much. "Buffy?" Angel's voice brought her back to reality

"Erm... actually no, Sunnydale sorta got... well lets just say... that nice trinket you gave, well its got more power than either of us realised."

"What happened?"

"Sunnydale got a bit flattened along with the Hell Mouth."

"Oh...do you need money? I have plenty of money, huge law firm and all that..."

"No...well yes, but that isn't why I called. I just called to let you know that we're ok, most of us anyway."

"I'm glad."


	3. Separate Ways

A/N- They are still not my characters with the exception of Morsirius, Mauvais and a few random Slayers dotted about the joint. There will be absolutely no Willow/Faith relationship, they just happen to be going off together to find Slayers, just thought I would make that clear, in fact I will probably warn you well in advance when there's going to be a relationship. This chapter may seem a tad on the random side, but hey, I know what I'm doing :P

* * *

Late at night a motorcycle pulled up outside a cheap Motel carrying two women. As it came to a gentle stop one of them got off very quickly, nearly tripping over. She pulled off her helmet.  
"Did I mention I'm really not a fan of the whole biker chick thing?" Willow asked, trying to flatten her hair. "I mean, girls in leather pants, I kinda see the appeal, but c'mon me? I'm a nerd, me and motorbikes are like...well they're like Giles and fun, they just shouldn't be mixed.  
"Hey I'm sure that's not true Will." Said Faith, dismounting the bike with more grace. "I bet Giles'd be really fun if he had enough Gin, or Whisky, or whatever the hell he drinks." She took the keys from the ignition and squeezed them into the pocket of her jeans, then took an envelope from her jacket pocked and tossed it to Willow. "You get us somewhere to sleep, I'm gonna go Patrol." She said stretching. "Ridin' a bike always gets me worked up, and the only way to get rid of that is either a quickie or a beat down on some unsuspecting Vamp."  
"Great..., you know sharing isn't always a good thing." Willow muttered, Faith smiled and wandered off. Willow looked inside the envelope, it was their share of the money Angel had sent, despite Buffy's protests, and so far it had been enough for them to buy clothes, supplies for a locator spell and, for some reason, a motorbike.

* * *

"Thanks Darlin'." The man behind the counter said as Willow handed over the ridiculously high fee for one night. He turned around to face the door behind him. "Shyla! Bring me the keys to rooms 3 and 7!" He bellowed, a minute later a young girl came stumbling out clutching two sets of keys. The man took them from her. "Jesus girly you got a grip like a vice." He handed them to Willow and grunted as his daughter went back to wherever it was she had popped up from.

* * *

Faith had been walking around the small town for about an hour now and still hadn't run into anything she could beat, so naturally she was happy when she heard the sound of breaking glass in the night air, though it was doubtful a Vampire would be breaking and entering it still meant some fun. She walked quickly towards the source of it. As she crept round a corner the source of it came into view and she was a little disappointed, just a couple of kids breaking into a shop. Still, she may as well do some good while she was out here.  
"Hey." She shouted, making one of them turn to face her, and the girl jumped down from the window.  
"You really don't want to start anything with me bitch." She screamed. Faith stepped back in surprise, the woman's eyes seemed strange somehow, glazed over, maybe she was just some drug addict, looking for the money for her next fix. Faith was even more surprised when the women jumped up into the air and kicked her in the chest; she was knocked backwards onto the ground.

* * *

Stinky herbs burning, strange powders scattered about the floor, the all too familiar ingredients of a spell. Willow sat cross legged on the floor, concentrating as fully as she could. The link between her and the new Slayers was beginning to fade; she couldn't sense them as clearly as she'd been able to minutes after the spell had taken place. Her thoughts were being interrupted by an argument downstairs, she sighed, accepting defeat; she'd try again later when it was quiet, and maybe when Faith was back, she still didn't trust herself entirely with spells.

* * *

There was a fumbling at the door and a young brown haired Vampire came bursting through. Morsirius took a cigarette from her pocket and lit it. She glared at him, and then looked down at the Slayer on the floor.  
"Do you want to explain this?" She asked viciously, he caught sight of the body she was talking about.  
"You went out without me?" He asked in a semi-childish voice. She rolled her eyes and took a deep breath from her cigarette  
"No you idiot, this little bitch, this little slayer, came in through the window. Now what's wrong with that?" She demanded.  
"Erm...well the Slayer attacked you, but now she's dead, so... the fact you have to pay for a new window?" He answered hopefully. She slapped him hard across the face for his stupidity  
"This..." She said, pointing at the body on the floor. "...is not Buffy Summers, I would know the Barbie doll look-alike if I saw her and this isn't her. That means that there is another Slayer."  
"Well what about that other one...Hope?"  
"Faith, no, it's not her either, I'd know, the amount Kakistos ranted about her, no, not her either."  
"Well maybe they're dead."  
"No, the First would be bragging by now, for a formless being it can sure rant. No this is different; something about the world feels different. Find out Mauvais; find out what's wrong so we can deal with it, before, well just find out."

* * *

_"I can feel it Buffy."  
"What?"  
"My Soul, it's really there, it kinda stings," "Go on then."  
"No, you've done enough, you can still..."  
"No, you've beat them back, it's for me to do the clean up."  
"Buffy c'mon."  
"Gotta move lamb, I think it's fair to say school out for bloody summer."  
"Spike."  
"I mean it, I've gotta do this."  
"I love you."  
"No you don't. But thanks for saying it. Now go." _

"I can feel it Buffy."  
"What?"  
"My Soul, it's really there, it kinda stings," "Go on then."  
"No, you've done enough, you can still get out of here."  
"No, you've beat them back..."  
"No Spike, c'mon, I can't do this without you."  
"Ok."  
"Buffy!"

* * *

"Buffy. Buffy!" Xander's words brought her back to the real world. "Are you ok?" He asked, taking his eyes off the road for a moment.  
"Yeah, yeah, just dreaming." She replied, distracted by her dream, finally she knew what he meant. Last year when Willow had brought her back, it was something that she'd always remembered, Spike said to her that every night he had dreamed about her, and each night he'd done one little thing differently that meant that she hadn't had to jump. It was kind of pathetic really; she knew that saying something slightly differently wouldn't have changed his mind; she doubted anything would have made him get out of there, but she should have stayed behind longer, or maybe just forced him to leave, dragged him out by his peroxide blonde hair.  
"Are we there yet?" Asked Dawn from the back of the car.  
"Oh for the love of... do you know how annoying that is?"  
"Yeah well, it's better than you going to sleep and shouting about Spike again." Dawn replied sarcastically. "Oh Spike, I love you." She mocked, causing Buffy to glare at her.  
"I guess we're here." Said Xander, mainly just to break up the coming fight. Buffy turned round to look out of the front of the car. Her eyes widened.  
"Oh God."

* * *

Sorry about this chapter, but I did warn you it was a tad random and didn't really have much substance, to good news is my brain has been going into over drive with possible stories, some of which I think you'll really like, but anyway I've said it before and I'll say it again, please review! Also any suggestions, criticisms, requests are entirely welcome, I'll get chapter 4 up soon. 


	4. Cleveland

A/N- Right, thank you Crystaltambaia for telling me that in fact the Watchers council doesn't exist...sorry about that people. So, a quick note before I continue, my knowledge of Buffy series 1-6 is really good, but 7 is slightly hazy, I missed a few episodes and part of the story, so Giles hasn't gone to England to tell the Watchers Council about the spell, luckily that doesn't affect the story, and it actually works out a little better, when I go back and edit the first chapter, which I no doubt will, I'll change it, and there is some Giles in this chapter so you'll find out why her went, but this is also a good opportunity to say that my knowledge of Angel isn't that good, and there will be certain events I'm going to ignore, but you'll see that when the time comes, so sorry for the mistake.

* * *

"I know what happened." Mauvais told her triumphantly.

"Umhum?" She said, in a very relaxed way, not bothering to look up at him

"The Hell Mouth, in Sunnydale, it was destroyed." It took a moment for his comment to sink in; at first she thought he was joking, although if he had been it wasn't a very funny joke. She just stared absently into space, trying hard to register what he'd said, if the Hell Mouth had been destroyed then that meant there was a huge chance that the Slayer would be coming here, to the other Hell Mouth, she'd heard rumours about this Buffy Summers for years, she'd become legendary, managing to destroy the Master was alone was enough to earn respect, but since then she'd sent Angelus to hell, managed to kill a huge embodiment of a Demon, stopped a Hell God from ripping apart the walls between dimensions, making the number of apocalypses she'd averted too high to count. If Buffy was coming to Cleveland it was defiantly bad. "And that's not the worst of it." Mauvais continued.

"Huh?" She asked as she came back to reality.

"There was a Witch and a mystical weapon thingy, and...well..." Morsirius rolled her eyes at him.

"Spit it out." She snapped

"Well, every 'potential' Slayer that they have lined up to take on the role...is now a Slayer. This, I guess, explains the one that attacked you the other day..." Morsirius brushed her long fiery ginger hair out of her face and sighed deeply. This was very bad, this town was exactly as she wanted it at the minute, and now if random Slayers began standing up and fighting it could throw a great big spanner in everything she'd worked towards.

* * *

Faith pushed herself back to her feet. She stood defensively and ready for when the woman tried something else, but she couldn't, because she was gone. She looked around in disbelief, trying to catch some glimpse of the strange attacker, of that face she would like to pound.

"Damn." She said aloud, before turning, the sun was coming up; it was time to go back and get some sleep, she'd try finding the bitch tomorrow night.

* * *

"Oh God." Said Buffy as the car came screeching to a halt. The street in front of them was full of Vampire, laughing as they chased innocent prey. "Stay in the car." Buffy told Dawn forcefully as she herself got out. She pulled a stake from inside her jacket and tossed it over to Xander, who was getting out of the other side. The Vampires who weren't busy feeding had now noticed them and were slowly coming towards them, Buffy jumped up onto the car for higher ground, pulling Xander up and kicking one of them in the face as it made a grab for him. She looked down at the crowd of about a dozen surrounding the car, growling as they looked up at them. "Who's first?" She said, standing ready to fight. More and more were gathering around the car, snarling as they looked up at the two of them, but none of them wanting to make the first move. Buffy looked down at them, the odds were stacked against her, she had no weapon and no real backup, her mind was flashing through all the possibilities, the Vampires wouldn't hold back much longer and she knew it. It was time to move. She looked straight at Xander; he understood exactly what she wanted, it was something they'd developed through 7 years of fighting side by side. Trying hard not to think about what she was doing she jumped legs first off the roof of the car and into the crowd.

* * *

_Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean_

"Why are we going to England again?" Asked Andrew, flicking through a magazine for the umpteenth time. Giles sighed and rolled his eyes and drained his little plastic cup.

"For the last time, I'm going to England to gather what few Watchers I can." He snapped. "And as for you, well, I strongly suspect its Buffy's revenge for something." He mumbled to himself, trying to grab the air Stewardess' attention for another drink, not seeing Andrew's imitation of him from his side.

* * *

No matter what she did they were all around her, she kicked and punched everywhere, knocking the Vampires back into each other, but still there were more attacking from all sides, her closing in, and she could hear Dawnie shouting from inside the car, she only wished Xander would hurry. One of them grabbed her arm as she tried to punch him, twisting it round behind her back and she snapped her head back, hitting him in the nose with her skull.

"Buffy!" Xander shouted at last, she turned to him; he was standing around the back of the car. "Catch!" He said, flinging the Scythe through the air. She caught it and swung, beheading two Vampires straight away, and then staking another, a kick, a swing, a stab, another swing, dust was falling all around her, another kick and a swing, taking out the last of them. "Ah, yet again, everybody's trying different ways of welcoming new comers into town, a little banner here, signs there, and oh yeah, a gang of un-dead minions by the beer." Xander joked.

"Personally I prefer the party in my honour; it's a tried and tested method." Buffy said shrugging. Dawn got out of the car and hugged her sister tightly.

"Oh, god, I thought..."

"I've been through much worse. I just want to know who was behind the Welcoming feast here, because I just didn't like anything on the menu. Oh I wonder if it's some ancient Vampire trapped in the Hell Mouth sending his minions out to feed for him so that he has enough power to break free, because that I could deal with. How often did Giles say the Harvest comes along?"

"Was the Harvest one of the things that came along every so often? There are just so many Vampire rituals floating around, I can't keep track of them all. Like the night of Sid Vicious? How often it that?"

"I think it was St Vigeous? And I'm pretty sure it was an entire day, not just a night, I'll ask Giles next time I see him."

* * *

_Heathrow Airport, London_

The flight had taken longer than expected, and after a few hours on plane with Andrew, Giles was about ready to get completely and utterly drunk and try to forget the whole thing happened; unfortunately he still had a lot of work ahead of him, old friends to meet, Watchers to talk to. Since the Watchers council had fallen apart a lot of the former Watchers had returned to normal lives, some with wives and children. He had arranged to meet an old friend at the airport, who claimed he could get Giles in touch with other Watchers; it was just persuading them that would be difficult.

"Rupert! How was the flight?" A young man asked as he stepped out of the crowd to great Giles with a handshake.

"To be honest, it was dreadful thank you Alex, and how are you and Nancy doing?"

"Good, as ever thank you. Right, first I thought we might venture up North, to visit a Mr. Garner, a highly respected former Watcher."

"Yes, I've heard of him." Replied Giles as he began to walk towards the doors. "Come along Andrew." He added, looking back.

* * *

"So Buff, any particular plan of action for tonight?" Xander asked, stepping into Buffy's new room and she unpacked some of her things, which were all brand new, bought with Wolfram and Heart's apparently limitless funds.

"Huh?" She asked looking round at him from the bed. She felt a bit guilty, Angel had paid for everything, new clothes for them, a new house in Cleveland, a car, and it must have cost him a small fortune and he didn't even seem to care. He was the head of this rich and powerful law firm now, it made her wonder if he was still the same Angel she knew, the same Angel she had once loved, the same Angel that somewhere, deep down she would always love.

"Buff?"

"Oh, sorry, erm, I was pretty much just thinking I go out and patrol, no doubt something will turn up, if not I'll just beat information out of an unsuspecting Vampire."

"Ok. Oh, I wonder if there's some Demon bar in this place that's run by a low life snitch."

"You mean like a Willy look-alike? Oh, or a relative of his, I kinda miss the good old days, beating up Willy until he sang, which never actually took long." She said, getting nostalgic yet again, it was happening a lot recently, since Sunnydale had been destroyed she kept thinking back to past times, missing the town she'd tried to get away from for all those years. Despite whatever bad things she'd been through there, Sunnydale was her home, and without it she felt kind of lost in the world. The phone rang and she grabbed it, glad of something to take her mind off it.

"The brand spankin' new Summers' residence." She said cheerfully

"Buffy."

"Angel."

"Do you like the new place?"

"Oh, yeah, it's nice, it's better than nice actually, it's great. How are you?"

"I'm ok, listen there's som..."

"Oh, before I forget, Xander and I were just talking about it and I was wondering; how often does the Harvest come along?"

"Once every century...why?"

"Just came up, and I couldn't remember. Is something wrong, you sound all, I dunno, you just sound like something's wrong."

"It's Spike."

"What about him?"

"Buffy, he's alive."

* * *

Hate to repeat myself here...but...PLEASE REVIEW...

As always, criticise, praise, suggest, its all welcome


End file.
